Preserving Garden Goodness - Parsley

I always grow some parsley in my garden.  It is packed with nutrition and is an ingredient called for in many recipes.  I tend to tuck it here and there in my garden.  Here is some that I planted in a bare spot in a row of lettuce.

Parsley did well this past summer.  We had more rain and it wasn't as hot as the previous two years.  So, I ended up with an over-abundance of it.  I hate to have anything go to waste, so I looked for ways to preserve it.  There seemed to only be 2 options:  drying and freezing.  

I know from experience that parsley loses a lot of flavor when it is dried.  So, I went with the other option .... freezing.  I have never tried freezing parsley before and found several references to chopping it up and freezing it in a bit of water in ice cube trays.  That sounded easy and I was about ready to try it when I found the method I'm going to describe in this blog entry which I really like because you end up with a product that is almost as good as fresh parsley.  Here's what you do.

First, wash the parsley and pull the leaves off the the stems.

Get a quart-size plastic freezer bag and label it with the date.

Stuff the parsley in the bag and squeeze out as much of the air as you can.

Then roll it up tightly into a "log", put a rubber band around it and pop it in the freezer.

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When you get ready to use it, just remove the log from the freezer bag and cut off the amount you need for your recipe.

Put the remainder back in the freezer bag, roll it up and put it back in the freezer.  I've found this is the next best thing to having fresh parsley.  Give it a try if you find you have extra parsley in your frig about to go to waste.